Tron: Sacrifice
by Kansas Ford
Summary: The Uprising has finally begun. Clu is constantly searching for Tron, the Renegade, and will stoop to the lowest to destroy any sense of disloyalty. Tron and Beck must keep the revolt alive, but an accident puts the revolt on hold. Kevin Flynn's absence is still felt by Tron. Without Flynn, how can such a small, rebel force stay in action much longer?
1. Sacrifices, Part One

_Tron: Sacrifice Script _

Episode One: Sacrifices Part One

BECK STOOD ALONGSIDE Tron, witnessing the Occupation's soldiers abandon the Garage.

Mara turned in pride, expecting to see only Tron.

"There's another." Mara called Zed's attention. "We've been looking at this all wrong, Zed. The Renegade is working for Tron."

Zed squinted his eyes at the silhouetted figures standing over the wreckage of the once powerful weapon. "So who's the Renegade?"

"Come on," Mara tugged Zed toward the wreck of flickering chaos. Together they began to trudge up the rubble.

Beck's eyes found Mara and Zed coming up to meet them.

"What do we do?"

Tron turned to Beck.

"The only thing we can do: Protect them from Clu. Put your mask on."

They covered their faces and made their way down the detritus.

"Though they are still your friends, you need to protect them from this Identity. They defied Tesler's and Clu's rule. If either of them discover you're the renegade, neither Clu nor Tesler will hesitate to use your friends as leverage against you."

"They defied Occupation rule. They defended Tron. They'll join us now, wouldn't they?" Beck replied.

"They will, but we will have to do more to protect them. They do not know what they are really getting into."

Zed and Mara trudged closer and closer.

"I won't be able to keep this a secret from them for long, especially if they commit to our cause." Beck watched as he could see the friendly smile on Mara's face and Zed's nervous grin, as they came closer and closer.

"Wouldn't it be safer for you if we split?" Beck said.

Tron gave Beck a small smile. "I don't think this is about me. We can't keep running."

Mara and Zed were within reach, and Tron bent to help Mara up over a large shelf of metal. Beck extended a hand to Zed.

"Tron." Mara said softly in Beck's direction.

"We have some questions." Zed interjected, crossing his arms.

"Zed!" Mara hissed.

"All questions are going to have to wait." Tron said as he strode to the ledge of crumpled metal, jagged and sharp.

Beck stepped passed his friends to join Tron.

A large aerial cruiser was hovering towards them, the circuitry bright yellow. It was heavily guarded by light jets, recognizers, and carrier ships, circuit orange, no doubt loaded with tanks and thousands upon thousands of Occupant soldiers.

"Clu." Beck announced. "He's coming to Argon."

"With the largest escort I'd ever seen.

"Let's go." Tron said. "We cannot stay here long."

"Go?" Scoffed Zed, his arms simultaneously falling out from their confident crossed position, and made a dropping motion to the ground. . "Where can we go?"

"The bikes." Beck said. "Get everyone a bike."

Beck leaped down the wreckage and pounded towards the Garage, Tron close behind him.

"Beck," Tron whispered, "how are we going to get everyone here back to the outland, with Clu on our tail?"

"I'm Tron," Beck said. "Clue wants Tron, so I'll give him Tron.

"Everyone, take a baton! Clu will not wait to investigate what happened here. The monstrosity outside is his doing. He'll want to know how it was destroyed. He will come, and he will derezz anyone who's still here. He will know I've been here, and won't waste any time to try to find me."

Everyone was inside the garage, clearing out batons for any vehicle.

"Which is why I'm going to lead Clu off your trail, and on a wild goose-chase through Argon."

Tron grasped Beck's arm.

"If you go," Tron warned, "you will as good as handed yourself over to the Clu."

"Clu has a fleet." Mara pointed out.

"Don't want to seem like a downer program," Zed cut in, "but that doesn't seem like it's in your favor."

"There's no time to argue about this." Beck said.

Tron pulled Beck away from Mara and Zed.

"Beck," Tron whispered. "Clu will torture you when finds out you are not whom he expected. He will take the disc, and you will be derezzed."

"Which is why I give it to you before I go." Beck put his arm over his head and reached for his disc. He turned Tron's inner disc away from his and held it out for Tron to take.

"You can lead them out to safety."

"Beck-"

"Save it. You're not going to convince me not to." Beck forced Tron to take the disc in his hand. "Live today, fight tomorrow, right? Now, go. I'll be fine."

"Don't get caught."

"Don't plan to, but if something happens I'll signal you."

"I hope I don't have to see it."

Beck watched Tron walk back to Mara and Zed, nudging them along to get their light cycles. He turned away to get ready for when Clu came.

"What's Tron doing?" Mara turned to watch Beck put his disc on his back, and his white uniform pixelated black.

"Giving us a head start." Tron replied stiffly.

"But-"

"He won't change his mind." Tron said. "He's doing this for you."

Mara was silent as Zed handed her a baton.

Tron turned back toward Beck.

"We're ready." Tron informed him.

Beck nodded.

They looked out across the dock, where the ominous, orange glare of the Occupation grew larger and larger.

"There's still time."

"I'll give you more." Beck held up a long black baton. "I'll be ready."

Tron nodded walking forward, his baton in hand. He turned once to nod thanks, which Beck accepted, and Tron took to a run. The others followed simultaneously, while Mara and Zed hesitated for a second before joining them. They jumped into the air and their bikes transformed under them and they were gone.

Beck watched them, letting his mask retract off his face, until he couldn't see them anymore. Now it was time to execute his plan, and wait for Clu to arrive. He went to Able's locker and emptied it.

It was before the start of the next Cycle when Beck spotted incoming recognizers over the sea. He looked below the light crafts at sea. A great number of speed boats sped toward him, and Beck figured by the speed they were traveling at, Clu would be at Able's Garage in a short time.

Beck ran through the plan in his mind, and looked out over Argon with his hands in fists. There was no doubt in his mind that he was ready.

Paige was the first on the scene. She observed the wreckage with interest. Then the uneasy soldiers heard a disturbance in the garage. Paige noticed their tense nervous state, and looked to the garage.

"Search it," she ordered. "Clu wants a full report."

"And he won't be happy with it, Paige," Beck said softly to himself, as he chose a baton, not taking his eyes off the scene.

He was lying on the roof of the Garage, waiting; bidding his time.

"The Garage is empty."

Beck watched Paige's reaction.

"Our jobs are on the line," Paige grimaced. "We'll keep looking until we find something suitable to report.

"Find Pavel." She ordered a soldier. "He's supposed to be stationed here."

"I can tell you where he is!"

Paige whirled around to look up at Beck.

"Get him." She hissed at a group of soldiers.

"You again." Paige called. "I should have known you were behind this-" she gestured at the gross mass of chaos behind her, as Beck's eyes trained their focus on the soldiers running into the Garage to retrieve him "-but why are you still here?"

"Small talk, Paige? You can do better than that." Beck humored. "You know why I'm here. I am healed."

"You were ill?" Paige said smartly.

Beck smiled through his mask, "Don't tell me that Clu didn't let you and Tesler in on his secret plan? That-" he pointed down at the crashed mobile Repurposing unit "- was Clu's doing. I just destroyed it."

"Confusing me, Renegade?" Paige moved her disc arm up to rub her forehead and quick as lighting snatched her disc from her back and hurtled it at him.

Beck dodged it easily.

"I thought you could do better than that." Paige said as her disc swung back to her.

"I not the Renegade." Beck said. "I'm Tron."

He leaped head first off Able's Garage, and activated his baton.

Paige threw herself down on the ground, feeling the force of wind from the sudden burst of speed of Beck's light jet. She leaped up, and took off running activating her own jet. The soldiers followed her lead, and took to the air.

Beck turned to watch them follow, and smiled. He sped faster and faster, leading them in a subtle circle around Argon City. After a few minutes of getting a good lead, he decided to execute step two of his plan: Let them catch up with him. That's when he'd commence step three: Damage everything he would get close enough to.

* * *

Tron lead the Garage refugees to the outlands in safety. There wasn't a soldier in sight. A few times they had to walk in small groups around the sentries that were migrating from their usual posts, toward the Garage.

Tron looked up into the dark sky, and he saw a small white speck speeding above the city. Mara and Zed followed Tron's eyes, and their reactions were the same as how Tron felt.

"We have to help." Mara said looking at Beck's jet, and they all watched as Beck avoided heavy fire from his pursuing opponents.

"There is a facility further up the outlands. Make it there. You'll travel slow, but you are safe now." Tron informed Mara and Zed, then turned walking away from the other Programs, toward Argon.

"We want to help!" Mara exclaimed.

"I know." Tron said. "I understand your eagerness, but right now, you have to get to Tron's safe house." Tron pointed to the mountain covered in the Grid dust. "Prepare for our return."

"Wait!" Mara started toward Tron. "I'm going with you. I helped Tron once before. I know what to do."

"Tron also told you that you were not ready."

"I think I'm ready to fight for myself." Mara looked fierce enough, to scare Zed into looking away, but Tron stared at her.

Tron turned to Zed, handing him the clearance key.

"Get the rest to the mountain, and prepare for the worst on our return."

Mara smiled in pride and satisfaction in her win, and waved Zed good-bye.

"We may not have much time. Look." Tron pointed up at the sky.

More enemy jets and copters were joining in the chase. Beck had his ribbon activated, and with great technique and skill, he flew in a wide corkscrew that rapidly narrowed. Three enemy jets went flying straight into it, and were derezzed instantly.

"You know how fly a jet?"

Mara smiled impishly, "I never told anyone that I've been practicing."

* * *

Beck was running out of moves and tricks. The orange-circuited jets flew at him and fired from every direction. His jet was close to failure, and he couldn't fly it and repair it at the same time.

Paige saw he was in trouble, and smiled deviously. She drew her jet level with his.

"Tron would have a plan right now!" She shouted. "You are no Tron."

Paige flipped her jet over his so she was right behind him. In an instant, she fired and Beck acted just in time.

His jet exploded and he fell, feeling weightless and cold as the wind whipped and ripped at him. His speed accelerated, taking him closer and closer to Argon. Enemy jets fired at him, and he deliberately straightened his body, forcing himself to hurtle faster yet to Argon.

Then an unexpected force took him sideways. His digital being racked with pain from the jolt, and he found himself lying across the back of a jet. The flier turn their head at him.

"Hold on!"

Though her speech was digitally garbled, and she was masked, Beck realized just who snatched him from his fall.

He slid down into the seat behind her.

Mara accelerated, and whooped with triumph. There was another jet beside them holding Tron.

"I told you to get them to the outlands!"

"I did!"

Orange was all around them. An enemy jet flew too close to Mara. She swerved, but an explosion sent Beck and Mara forward with much force. Beck cried out in pain, as his back was seared and damaged by the close proximity range bomb. He slumped unconscious against Mara, and his weight push her forward. The jet spun tail over head and again, over and over. Mara forced the jet to go up, trying to level the jet.

She almost had full control on the jet when Tron signaled her to to go down. She tipped the nose forward and speed to the City. Tron covered her trail, leading the orange jets to follow him, and firing on a tall dark building. It shattered with boom and particles rained down on the Occupation.

Tron took the lead and showed Mara a safe landing spot away from enemy eyes. They went down between the dark buildings for cover.

Mara deactivated the jet, and Beck tumbled and rolled on the ground. Mara landed on her knees, while Beck simply slid across the street on his side.

Tron landed on his feet and dropped his baton. He hurried over to Beck and rolled him on his stomach to see his back, and Mara gasped in shock.

"He needs to get to the safe house!" Tron said harshly, lifting Beck up gingerly. "We'll have to walk for the time being. The sentries will be watching for jets, light cycles, anything!"

Mara watched Tron guiltily, but lifted herself off the street at once, picking up Tron's baton.

Tron hoisted Beck over his shoulder, and pulled out a small remote and pressed a series of buttons.

"What are you doing?"

"Sending for help." Tron tossed it to her to hold.

Tron began to walk through the dark streets, his newly healed senses awakened and alert for strange sounds and movements. Mara followed close behind him, silent.

* * *

"You let them get away!" Tesler said angrily when Paige had finished her report.

Clu was present, accompanied by Dyson, both looking furiously vivid at her.

"We knew you had trouble with the Renegade, Tesler," Dyson said, his voice signaling trouble, "but you did not inform us your leading commanders were so under qualified for the task of ridding one rebel. Abandoning posts and not arresting perpetrators."

"Permission to speak freely, sirs?" Paige asked calmly.

Clu smiled coolly.

"I don't see why not."

"Tron was present in the fight, sir, and he was injured."

The silence echoed her statement, and Clu stood up, took out his disc, and walked forward.

"Tesler," Clu said, rubbing the edge of his disc with an undying interest. "I now confirm how lax of a commanding officer you really are. Tron is dead. I derezzed him, personally when the infamous Flynn fled from justice."

He turned to Paige, "You are lucky I do not derezz you where you stand, program, for spreading treason. Consider yourself permanently relieved of duty. I do not wish to see you for the rest of the cycles I may remain activated."

Paige stepped back in surprise, and looked to Tesler.

Clu seemed so amused by her actions, he laughed cruely.

"Tesler is also relieved of duty." He made a signal to Dyson. "Please, escort him to the brig."

Paige turned and walked briskly out of General Tesler's – formally general's command.

"Wait."

She stopped and heard Clu's steps behind her.

"Do not forget that you are no longer authorized to exhibit the Occupation's light." Clu said as matter-of-factly.

She was about to walk away, when she felt Clu access her disc. The red-orange faded from her uniform, turning her circuitry back to the Medical unit green. He released her, and she continued her leave of Clu's new headquarters.


	2. Sacrifices, Part Two

_Tron: Sacrifice Script_

Episode Two: Sacrifices Part Two

MARA WATCHED AS Tron waited impatiently for the light runner to arrive. They'd made it to the edge of Argon, and Zed had managed to contact them, signaling that he was on his way by sending a calm, rhythmic beep back.

"How is he?" Mara asked as Tron managed to settle down, making himself busy by trying to access Beck's disc.

"I won't know the extent of the damage until we get back," Tron shook his head, reattaching Beck's disc, "but he appears to be stable for the time being."

He attempted to put the palm of his hand against his forehead, but his mask blocked him. He put his head back, looking up at the finally dark, empty sky. At least the Occupation ceased the search for them for the time being.

"What will happen-" he shook his head again "-what I presume will happen is his systems will start shutting down within the next cycle, if the damage isn't sustained. This time will be critical for him.

"That was some great flying you did back there." Tron said when Mara sat down on the ground and rested her head on her knees, her arms around her legs.

"Heh, thanks." Mara closed her eyes and the memory of the tumbling jet flashed in front of her.

"Tron would have died if you didn't convince me to let you come." Tron stood up again. "It was out of your control. You had no idea a bomb was going to injure him, let alone be activated. This commitment is full of risks. Tron knew what he was involved in."

Mara looked up at him, then looked past him.

Tron saw her eyes focus on something white speeding towards them.

"Zed!" Mara stood up when he was close enough.

Tron attended to Beck, lifting him and stood, waiting calmly for Zed to slow the vehicle enough to set Beck in the seat beside Zed.

"Go!" Tron ordered when Zed looked like he was about to ask what happened.

Tron and Mara took running jumps and activated their light cycles. They took positions on either side of the runner, and Tron pleaded for a safe passage to the mountain.

Beck was critically injured. Tron knew that Beck understood the risks and the following consequences of his actions, but Tron did not anticipate how much that moment costed him. He knew programs were going to be hurt. That fact was inevitable and couldn't be avoided. He knew it was his responsibility to repair the damage.

Zed handed Tron the clearance key and he deactivated his cycle. He swiped the card. As the large door swung open, Tron realized he was going to have to upgrade his security. His closest inner circle would have to log in special codes, and the rest would have the appropriate clearance cards according to their rank. A rank that would be achieved by close observation during training that he would have to over see.

He decided he would fine tune his ideas later, after a computer generated evaluation scan of Beck's injury.

As Tron entered, he saw everyone turn to watch as Zed parked the runner in the space available. Tron closed the door and walked around the runner to remove Beck. The silence in the lower level was cold as ice, as tron moved toward the only security locked lift. He repositioned Beck to lay over his shoulder to scan his hand, and press in the appropriate code.

"The lift will be open for one hour. Time enough for everyone to relocate to Observation Deck, level one." Tron stepped into the lift and Mara and Zed joined him at his beckoning.

The lift stopped and opened to an enclosed deck. Mara and Zed walked after Tron.

The room was a clinic.

An examination table rose from the floor, and Tron laid Beck face down on it. Tron, again, tried to access Beck's disc, trying not to look at the blue and black pixels that had been scrambled by the blast. Zed watched awkwardly, and Mara stared at Beck's disfigured back.

Missing pixels, Beck's back was a light blue and black mass of twisted circuitry. His digital code was scrambled, and Tron knew it. He was amazed that it was just his back that was damaged.

Tron was denied access again, and again, and reattached Beck's disc in frustration. He went to the plasma tank, the same tank which Beck destroyed in trying to heal him.

"If Tron's disc was undamaged, I could fix his code no problem." Tron looked at Mara and Zed. "Maybe, if you repair this tank..."

"On it." Mara and Zed moved to the tank to observe the damage.

They worked diligently, talking among themselves and assessing the damage together, as Tron observed. Zed placed a recoder into the tank's main conduit. An invisible screen extended in front of Zed, and he began to fiddle with the tank's inner workings, until he found what was wrong.

"Plasma overload." Zed reported to Mara.

"Yeah," She replied pulling her hand out of her own recoder screen. "The whole tank is coated in it."

She proceeded to clean out the tank's computer system, and Zed set out to repair the tank's protective screening. Within seconds the screen was mended, and Zed helped Mara with the computer.

Tron smiled thoughtfully behind his mask. Beck's friends would do well as Chief Mechanics here. He was sure they would be thrilled to have their own team, but something still wasn't right. Mara could be useful as a partner for Beck, a fellow Renegade. Beck's made his way through some tight spots, being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Being a fierce program, Mara would even some of the odds Beck faced.

At last the tank was repaired, and Tron placed Beck in the tank, already filled with plasma. Tron activated the tank with a touch of a gloved finger on the conduit.

Tron froze waiting for the computer to announce a warning, but it only stated: "Commencing Plasma Reconstruction sequence" and remained silent. He set a timer on the translucent screen, and watched for a moment as it began counting down from three cycles. He observed the scans with a studious eye, as the computer started a series of critical, probing scans. Satisfied that Beck's system was stable at the moment, Tron entered the lift with Mara and Zed.

Stepping off the lift, Tron saw the view of Argon was quiet. It matched the same silence as the mechanics exhibited. They watched him make his way to the strong, reconstructed glass. Argon was quiet. Too quiet.

"I'm going to ask you all not to part from this facility." Tron said softly. "As long as Clu resides in Argon, he will continue to search for anyone who can be linked to the to Tron, the Garage, and to me."

"And Tron?" Mara asked timidly.

"Tron needs all the possible help he can receive." Tron turned. "We need a new security system. One that not even Clu's most advanced tech-programers can break through. You are all mechanics. We can work together, and design the perfect system. We need to build new lifts, we need to make the clearance keys, and come up with new codes.

"Some of you may not want to be here, and let me apologize for saving you from derezzalution. But you're here now, and I can protect you from Clu." Tron walked through the crowd of programs. "I need to know who the best mechanics are. I'll need to know who the best circuitry builders are, and if you don't know how to accomplish these things, I will teach you how. We are all going to help out here. If you want to be safe, if you want to defeat Clu, and remove the threat of his forces; if you support Tron, help him now by doing your part here."

Mara nodded and stepped forward, but she was alone. She turned her head and glared fiercely at her fellow mechanics. Then Zed stepped forward. Slowly everyone had joined in, and Tron smiled behind his mask.

"We should find Beck." Zed said. "He was for the Renegade one hundred percent from the beginning. He'd want to join."

"If Beck is as smart as he sounds," Tron said, "he'd have gone underground when he found the Garage was abandoned. I will look for him, but first we have to find someone who can help heal Tron."

Tron went to his computer and searched the data base. It ran through the usual programs who were in medical units, who acted as healing programs for the Occupation. Then he noticed something was missing from the data base. He stopped the computer's search and started a new more specific search of the former medical unit programs that had worked for the Occupation.

Tron smiled as the computer stopped on a program's status that had changed, and most recently. The program had previously been a Medical clinic officer before their devoted service to the Occupation, a service that seemed no longer to have a value.

Paige walked down the dark street, her heels hardly making any sound. She distrusted the dark silence. It was like a deep breath that at any moment, would expel a full, anger-fed, and violent riot. The tension, even in the empty streets, was almost palpable. The same anger filled her code, and then, she, too, could taste it.

She saw Tron and the Renegade together. The Renegade... Who was he?

She searched the dark streets of Argon, not for anything specific. She just need one little piece of proof that Tron was injured.

_'Injured again?'_ Her mind pondered as she remembered what Tron had said to her:

"_I am healed._" and "_Clu didn't let you and Tesler in on his secret plan?_"

_'Lies!'_ Part of her subconscious exclaimed. _'Tron is only an image, which one rogue program manipulated to confuse civilian programs and defy the Occupation!'_

An image? Tron didn't look like an image today. What of the thing crashed by Able's Garage? What was it for? What happened that it failed and was destroyed?

Her search lead her to the Garage, and she laid her eyes once again on the black mass of rubble. She noted how this part of the district was dead silent, abandoned by all who had lived here from fear.

She stepped forward cautiously, fully aware if she made even the softest of sounds, she'd alert anyone who lurked here of her presents. She turned off her circuitry color, and she walked on. She quietly dashed to the wreckage, and once hidden by their bulk, she turned her light to the lowest level available and began to search.

She maneuvered through the maze of twisted Grid metals and circuitry, until she heard a noise. A soft thump, like marginal weight landing on metal from an easy jumping distance. She accessed her disc and turned her light off and stood frozen, her ears and frame alert to any sound. As she continued to simply stand there hiding in the dark, and she continued to hear nothing, Paige concluded that the beast of machinery around her must still settling. She mentally scoffed at her foolish paranoia, and turned her search light back on.

A slender, white figure appeared with the beam of light in front of her.

It took all of her trained memory not to be shocked and startled at the sight, but the hesitation of surprise gave Tron all the opportunity he needed.

He tossed an electrical pulse granade at her as she reached for her disc. She saw it activate and felt the electricity surge into her digital being. She cried out and the force of the surge sent her backward into the rubble. She slide down into a heap, and some small, dislodged debris fell on top of her.

Tron stood over her, as Mara came out from hiding.

"How did you know she'd be here?"

"She's been discharged." Tron said as he kicked the rubble off of Paige's unconscious form, and cuffed her hands behind her back. "She saw Tron, and probably reported his existence to her commanders. Clu has been praising the presumed death for far too many xilacycles now, and wouldn't appreciate a program going around telling Argon Clu lied. So he dismissed her, probably discredited her along the way. It's really a wonder she's not derezzed."

"How could she possibly help Tron?" Mara said skeptically. "She is the enemy; part of the Occupation."

"True, she may not want to offer her assistance in our cause," Tron said lifting Paige onto his shoulder, "but do not forget if we give her the proof that Tron is alive, she may recognize Clu lied and may also be easier to bend to our cause."

The corner of Mara's mouth twitched, as she nodded. She let Tron lead the way out of the wreckage.

They walked to Able's Garage. Mara brought a pack with her and began filling it with necessary tools and materials. Mara designed the pack to temporarily dissolve the tools, enabling her to fit anything inside and the pack would still be light enough to carry easily. She went to everyone's locker tossing the contents in the pack until she came to Able's.

Mara paused, holding her hand on the locker door before pushing it open to find it empty.

Tron noticed her hesitation.

"We need to hurry." He whispered urgently.

"Able's locker." Mara turned her head to look at Tron's masked face. "It's empty."

"Your friend," Tron started to tactfully convince her to move on, "Beck. Maybe he came by earlier and emptied the locker."

"Maybe." Mara sounded crestfallen. "I just wish we could find him. He was hardly around before, and now when we need him most he is hiding."

Tron looked down at his feet. "I'm sure he can take care of himself."

"Yeah," Mara smiled slightly. "I just wish he was here. This would be easier with Beck."

Mara closed the locker and closed her pack.

"Okay." Mara hoisted her pack over her shoulder. "Let's go."

Tron read through the scans on Beck's evaluation. He was alone and unmasked. His brow was furrowed in frustration.

The results read critical, as Tron suspected. He entered Beck's scans into the computer and ran a simulation. The screen showed a model of Beck's being. Areas unharmed showed the light blue color of his secondary circuitry, and damaged areas showed a deep red. Tron began the simulation, and watched as the cycles counted off and the red spread across the computer generated Beck. When the whole model was red, the simulation ended, the time count stopped.

Beck had at most eight cycles left before his digital code deteriorated.

He shook his head and looked at Beck. He was still in the tank, which was the best place for him at the moment.

"Come on, Beck." Tron said as he entered new codes into the computer's simulation.

Tron watched in anxiety as the simulation went badly, cutting the time Beck had left by half.

Tron put his hand on his forehead. How can he do this alone?

Then the computer started beeping.

"Subject derezzalution." The computer annouced.

Beck's code was deteriorating.

Tron rushed to the tank's conduit and adjusted the plasma pressure inside the tank.

"Come on, Beck! Fight it!"

Tron watched as the scan brought up a new evaluation of Beck's system, and entered the new data. He saw Beck's simulation turn red, and looked at the time estimate.

Beck had less than seven cycles.

The tank's computer system alarm was still blinking at Tron.

The only way he could save Beck was to repair his disc. But how?

Tron directed the computer to isolate it's probes on Beck's disc. The model appeared on the screen, and Tron's eyes widened in shock.

Half of Beck's disc was derezzed. There was no way he could repair the disc himself without doing Beck harm. If his disc was corrected the slightest bit differently than originally programed, Beck's code would change and he would never be the same. So many risks were present to happen if anything went wrong, and Tron knew too little to repair a damaged disc. He rubbed his forehead, wondering how in the history of the grid, he could feel this helpless.

Then Tron looked up from his palm. "Flynn."

He left the computer console, and stepped into the lift. His mask enclosed his face as he shot up to the Observation deck. Once the lift opened, he raced out to the main computer. Several programs dashed out of his path as he ran through the crowded level. He stopped at the computer's screen and began pulling data out of the computer's main storage files on his continuous search for his friend.

"What are you doing?" Mara rushed by to see what the brouhaha was about, with Zed close behind her. "Is it Tron?"

"I may have found away to heal Tron." He gestured at the immense, ever-flowing data filling the screen. "Ever since Clu betrayed Kevin Flynn, Tron has lived here after escaping Clu's rule and torture. Flynn has been missing, and wasn't heard from since. All of this is Tron's research on finding Flynn's whereabouts."

"Kevin Flynn...the Creator." Mara's eyes dilated.

"Tron's disc is too critically damaged, and I have no extensive training to guide me to even attempt to reverse the harm to his code." Tron was taping at the screen so quickly, he forced himself to slow his pace to take in the most recent information he collected. " As the Creator of the Grid, Flynn may be able to help us, but here's the problem: We need to track down Flynn before it is too late."

"What do we have to do?" Mara asked confidently.

"You two can help isolate Flynn's suspected appearances," Tron backed away, still starting at the screen. "I'll see if I can persuade our guest to help slow Tron's derezzulation."

As Tron headed to the lift once again, he wished he didn't have to keep up this act. He decided that when they found Flynn and healed Beck, they'd tell Mara and Zed who he really was. They were proving themselves loyal to Tron, his cause, and now helping Beck without knowledge of it.

Paige knelt on the floor in a dark room; a single light shining above her. Her hands cuffed behind her back and her disc was missing.

Slowly, lights were beginning to turn on and she saw him.

Tron walked toward her. She felt a sense of confidence radiate off of him, but not in a pompous, ruling manner.

As his feet hit the floor, ripples emitted across the surface of the holofloor.

"You're not Tron." Paige spat his name, as she tested her cuffs. "I injured him."

At once, Tron face was revealed to her as his mask retracted, and she fell silent. She started at him in disbelieve, and her hands and arms relaxed in their confinement.

"You managed to injure the Renegade." Tron said, his voice betraying a little emotion from knowing who had caused Beck's slow death.

"The Renegade?" Paige was shocked dumb.

"The Renegade was the means to the Uprising. I have a story to tell you about him." Tron circled Paige. "In fact, I 'll show you."

The holodeck was activated, and Paige saw the statue of Clu being destroyed. She guiltily felt a strange joy at seeing the metal explode, then a surge of annoyance.

"I've already seen this footage." Paige turned her head to follow Tron as he walked behind her. "I've been hunting the Renegade since the beginning. I had to study him enough."

"Watch." Tron nodded at the scene change around them.

Paige's eyes widened as she saw a program on a cycle racing against the drill explosion. This was from the point of view of the Renegade, as he reached to take her image on his bike. He'd rescued her then.

The scene changed again.

Paige watched as she was hanging for dear life from a cliff of the degenerating island after a wild, dangerous chase after the Renegade. His arm extended and retracted, as he went away from the cliff. She saw he was trying to fix the light jet, hurrying with his recoder to repair the damage as the island quaked again. He turned around and saw her hand slip.

Paige looked away.

"No," Tron said softly. "Look again."

She did, and she saw the Renegade rescue her from the Games.

"Making me feel guilty isn't going to get you want you want."

"I wasn't going for guilty." Tron said as the holodeck deactivated. "Look again."

Beck's face appeared at every angle of the holodeck, as if she could not escape him even if she tried.

"He is the Renegade?" Paige almost laughed.

"You should not judge and doubt him so quickly; so harshly," Tron said. "You don't know his story. Didn't you ever wonder why the Renegade came into exsistance?"

"Of course, I-"

"Did General Tesler tell you he was just a one rogue program that needed a reminder that I was dead?"

Paige remained silent.

"Little did you know that he accidnetally found me." Tron said. "He even thought he could get away with what he did to Clu's statue, and just end what he started.

"Did he ever tell you about his friend Bodhi?"

Paige silently turned her head to look at Tron over her shoulder.

"When General Tesler came to Argon Square, he interupted the competion disc games being played there among the locals." Tron walked around to face her, kneeling down a few steps away from her. "Bodhi was Tesler's first murder in Argon, followed by countless other programs later in the Games and otherwise. Beck's best friend was derezzed before his eyes.

"Beck was angry, and his reason was blinded by his loss." Tron looked Paige straight in the eye. "And you know the rest."

Paige broke Tron's gaze, and fixed her own on the floor. Before the silence became stale between them, Tron got to his feet and went behind her. She felt his deft fingers release her hands from the cuffs, and Tron remembered how Beck somehow manage to break through those cuffs the first time.

She looked around in surprise, and rubbed her wrists.

"I need your help, Paige." Tron said to her. "Beck needs your help."

She just started at Tron, still dazed at his dedication to Beck. She wondered if Tesler ever had such dedication to her?

"Come with me. I want to show you something." He already had cleared the lift before Paige was off the holofloor.

She stepped into the lift and it only took a few moments before it opened to the clinic. Tron showed her in first.

Paige opened her mouth in surprise. A fulfledged clinic was before her. Her eyes traveled along the white metal flooring, to the tiles of the rising emergency tables, and like a magnetic force, her eyes gravitated to the tank. Still inside was Beck.


	3. Decisions

_Tron: Sacrifice Script_

Episode Three: Decisions

TRON WALKED TO the Observation deck to met Mara and Zed. They sent him a message during his interregation with Paige, saying they may have found something.

So Tron took Paige back to the brig, where he gave her back her disc and she allowed him to cage her like a dangerous virus.

"Beck doesn't have much time left."

She nodded.

Paige was silent ever since she saw Beck in the plasma tank, or perhaps it was because she never considered the Renegade was really him.

"I need to know if you will help him." Tron saw her look at his eyes with a strange look on her face. "I'm not asking you to do this for me. Beck is my friend, Paige. I know him as the Renegade. You knew him as Beck. Do this for him."

"Why?"

"This is no time to play the victim act here, Paige." Tron grew stern. "He liked you enough to overlook your devotion to the Occupation, but he wanted you on our side."

"What if I refuse to help you?"

"Then you condemn Beck to a slow derezzalution.

"If you're wondering what I'd do to you if you refuse, think about what Clu would do, what General Tesler would do if they found out you were here," Tron crossed his arms dominately, "then think of the opposite."

"Tesler is in the same spot as me," Paige sat in the farrest corner of her cell. "In prison, awaiting Clu's rule of punishment."

"They both lied and manipulated you, Paige." Tron turned to depart. "You're lucky I am not like them."

* * *

"You said you found something?" Tron asked.

Mara smiled and Zed crossed his arms as matter-a-factly.

"One of the sensors in Argon was activated with a greeting code Tron had set up."

"You're sure?" Tron looked at the tablet Zed handed to him.

A pulsing white dot marked the coordinates of the sensor. Tron watched it pulse, for a moment, thinking. What if this were a trap set for him by Clu? How would Clu know the codes only Flynn and Tron, himself, designed in case of a dangerous situtaion where they were separated? Unless...Clu already found Flynn and broke him...

Tron handed the tablet back to Zed.

"Inform me if the singal persists." Tron said and Zed nodded. "We'll want to be certain it won't be a trap."

"Any luck with Paige?" Mara asked crossing her arms. "Will she help Tron?"

"It looks promising." Tron observed another tablet with the coordinates of all the conduits he'd placed in Argon. "Maye I'll let you have some time with her."

"Really?" Mara uncrossed her arms, looking slightly excited.

"I will need to observe and train you," Tron looked at her through his mask. "I need to show you something."

He put the tablet down on the table surface for them all to see.

Tron highlighted all five of the communication devices. He pointed at the one in Argon Square.

"This is closest to Clu's new throne. If this beacon is activated, we will not comply. Flynn wouldn't travel that far into Argon to signal me. Tron placed this conduit here as more of a failsafe for traps and false distress calls. It is also less hidden than the others" Tron moved across the tablet to the pulsing beacon closest to the edge of the Outlands, and farthest away from Clu. "Since this one was already activated, we'll watch it more closely. Soon it will deactivate itself after a some time, because Tron put short time stamps on them."

In that moment, the pulsing light desisted.

"Whoever is on the other end of that signal," Tron started, "will know the time stamp is set for ten microcycles."

They watched the tablet with anticipation for a moment, then several moments, and Tron sighed and walked away from the conference table.

"It's back!" Mara gasped.

"Set the computer to moniter the times it is activated. We may find a pattern." Tron drew away from Mara and Zed more and stood to watch the city. "If it is repeatedly activated with that same code I will go to the conduit's location and met Flynn."

"You can't go alone." Mara said.

"It still could be a trap." Zed joined Mara.

"We'll talk about that when we get there." Tron looked at Mara and Zed. "Right now, let's go to the holodeck. I want to see how well you two preform under pressure."

Mara smiled, while Zed's shoulders slumped a little.

* * *

"What do you mean you cannot find them?"

Clu stood up from his throne in outrage. Dyson returned from his search of the Garage with nothing, but a baton to one, lone cycle he'd found.

"Commander-," Dyson started.

"Go back and search until you can bring me back something that shows Argon I am, truly, their only, most powerful, protecting leader!" Clu threw his disc at a guard, derezzing the program instantly.

"Get someone to clean up this mess!" Clu settled himself down in his throne, suddenly very slow, and put his face in his hand.

Dyson bowed his head and slowly turned.

"Don't disappoint me again, Dyson."

"I will not return until I bring you the evidence you desire."

Clu looked up at Dyson's retreating back.

"And I will not receive you if you break that oath, or if you bring anything but Tron."

Dyson hesitated in his steps, breaking their rythme on the metalic floor.

Clu smiled for the first in the longest time. At least he could still drive fear into his closest minions. He was relieved their fear kept them from joining Tron and his slip-shot, novice, side-kick Renegade.

_'Amazing,'_ he thought, _'how a rebble force of only two programs can dare to stand against me.'_

_ 'Amazing,'_ said a degrading voice in his digital mind, _'how you cannot liberate said two-manned force.'_

The smile was wiped from his face, his mood greaty affected. He was put out from that moment on, and nothing would lift it until Tron was in the palm of his hand.

* * *

"Zed!" Mara stood over him, offering her hand. "Pull it together! The Renegade is watching."

"I was never good at the disc games we played," Zed complained, taking her hand. "Why would I excell at this?"

"Well, just try." Mara pulled him off the holofloor, as Tron walked across the floor.

"I think we need to take a different approach." Tron looked at him, and Zed shrugged in response. "Not a single program with the Occupation will offer their hand when you're knocked off your feet. You will sooner receive the strike of a disc."

Zed looked down embarrassed, as Tron positioned himself a few steps away from them.

"Try to knock me down. Both of you, at the same time."

Mara shrugged at Zed and took a running leap at Tron, her disc in hand, and Zed watched as Tron simply took one step aside. Mara landed hard on the floor, jarring her disc hand, and sending her disc rolling. She followed it as her disc made a ripping trail across the floor.

"Zed. It's your turn."

Zed looked at Tron. He started at a run at Tron, aware that soon he would move aside as he did with Mara. But he stood there, letting Zed charge him until Tron put out his arm.

It was too late to change course.

Zed ran full force into Tron's outstreched arm, catching him under his chin. Zed's head flew back and his feet were swept out from underneath him, and he too, crashed to the floor.

A pair of arms and a disc wrapped around Tron's head and neck, as Mara jumped up on his back attempting to knock him down by force. Tron grabbed her disc arm and pulled it straight down in front of him. Mara gasped from the sudden spasm of pain, and Tron use her momentum to throw her over top of him.

Zed pulled his disc and threw it at Tron.

Tron reached behind, retrieved his disc, and deflected Zed's throw in a split nanocycle. Zed jumped up to receive his disc as Mara twisted Tron's wrist.

A glitching shock ran up his arm, and reflex released Mara's arm. She clocked Tron's head with the broad side of her disc, and Tron backed a pace away, quickly recovering. He jumped up and flipped over Mara and kicked her legs out from under her.

Zed moved around so Tron was now in between Mara and himself. He caught her eye and she understood what he had in mind. She distracted Tron from Zed's movement behind him, throwing her disc at his face. Tron deflected it easily, sending it behind him to disarm Zed, who was raising his arm for the throw. Both Mara and Zed raced to pick up their discs, as Tron threw his in a wide arc. Mara saw it coming as a blur of white light hurtling around her and Zed. She dived to the floor and snatched up her disc, as Zed first saw Tron's disc and followed Mara's lead.

Zed and Mara threw their discs at Tron, and he took a running jump toward them. He pushed up into a twirl as the discs passed him. His momentum carried him forward, and he landed on the floor, still rolling. He used his momentum to push himself on his feet, and standing upright, caught his disc returning to him. He threw it over his shoulder without a glance at the incoming discs, intending their landing as his back, and they were thrown off course; all three skidding to a stop on the holofloor.

Mara and Zed, still on the floor, panted with excertion. They noticed how Tron wasn't even the least bit tired as he strode toward them.

"You did very well for beginners." Tron reported, as he retrieved his disc from the rippling holofloor. "I need to inspect Tron's systems."

Mara and Zed were silent as Tron traveled away to the exit lift to the clinic, leaving them exhausted in the holodeck.

"He did that on purpose" Zed said.

"He did try to have us fight each other. He tried to make an even advantage for both of us." Mara said. "How do you think he feels? Tron is in that tank. The Renegade doesn't have anyone to spar with, but us."

"Sure," Zed scoffed. "Let him beat us into the ground. Let him show him how inferior we are in a tourney, compared to him."

"If it means we will learn, then yes, Zed!" Mara got to her feet. "He's going to teach us to defend ourselves."

Zed watched Mara pick up her disc.

"He's going to assess us all. There was no way to avoid, or prolong this evaluation." Mara extended her hand to Zed.

He took it, pondering what Tron had said before, how none of the soldiers would offer to help him up if he fell.

"Come on," Mara pulled him to the console, and ran her fingers over the screen. "We'll train each other."

"How?" Zed shrugged.

"look at all these hologames. Tron must have set up all of them to train the Renegade." Mara selected the first holoplay. "So let's use them, too."

"I liked the disc games better."

Mara smiled slightly, "We've just graduated."

The holodecks walls pixelated into the scene, and holograms of Occupation soldiers appeared on duty. They saw them, and began to form a circle around them.

"Couldn't we have settled on a disc games first?"

Mara reached for her disc. "This is a game. It's just more dangerously real."

Paige sat in her corner of the cell. She didn't even look up when Tron arrived to interregate her, once again, she assumed.

He walked right through the barrier imprisoning her, and sat beside her. He didn't ask to confiscate her disc. He didn't force her hands into those inferal cuffs. He just sat there, beside her like a friend would. Like Beck would have.

"Approxiamently," Paige spoke from behind her knees, which she pulled up to her chest, "how long does he have."

"A few microcycles ago, wehen I checked six cycles." Tron leaned back against the metal wall. "But it's always a changing factor. His disc is malfunctioned, being halfway through derezzalution, it is always difficult to set a solid estimate."

Paige nodded, silent as the site of Able's Garage.

"Paige."

She looked at Tron then.

"I cannot save him alone. Please help me."

_'He showed you mercy.'_ Paige's voice said to her. _'He will understand you. Tesler never did.'_

_'Tesler rescued me from the ISOs.' _Paige thought with weakened pride.

_'For all you know,'_ the voice responded softly,_ 'he may not have. The ISOs knocked you unconscious. You don't know what really happened. Perhaps, the ISOs rescued you...'_

Paige stood up and slowly walked to the edge of the cell barrier.

_'Clu won't accept you as a soldier again. He as good as promised you derezzalution, if you returned.'_

Paige turned to Tron, and looked him in the eye.

"Take me to him."

With Paige set in the clinic, and the main computer monitering her every move, Tron allowed her to work in as much privacy as he could authorize. He went up to the holodeck, hoping to practice with a holo-Beck, only to find it still occupied with Mara and Zed.

He smiled and checked to see what program was running, realising they were the hologames he invented for Beck's use.

He slipped in with out their noticing, and watched off on the side.

They were struggling, and the Occupation's soldiers were becoming more and more overwhelming. The odds were against them, but Tron stayed where he was, curious to see what would happen next.

Mara had managed to cut down and derezz a soldier and commandeered his fallen staff. It matched its circuitry with hers and she began to be more confident in her actions. She was swinging the staff around her, derezzing several soldiers and putting several others on their guard. She grimaced as she threw her disc through a soldier's chest, and thrust the staff into one other's head.

Tron nodded impressed and moved his attention to Zed.

He was surrounded, but he still had his cool. Zed was derezzing a path toward Mara, when he realised she was in trouble.

"Mara!"

She looked behind her to see a tank, amd Mara put up her arms over her face as it fired at her.

As the program ended, and the holodeck returning to its normal state, Tron was revealed to Mara and Zed.

"I see I should have put you through these exercises instead."

Mara laid on the holofloor, more exhuasted than before, and breathed, "But we failed."

"You simply need to revise your strategy." Tron pulled Mara to her feet. "Do not divide and conquer. Stay together, back to back. No program can derezz you from the behind if you stay close and watch each others back."

"How long were you standing there?" Zed said.

"Long enough." Tron said with a hidden smile. "We should go back to the Oservation Deck. We should examine the computer's records."

Mara was the first in the lift and they cleared the holodeck to to the top deck.

They went to the conference room and Tron pulled the computer's records. The computer showed the results of the beacon been activated almost fifty times during the past cycle.

"Someone is actually trying to contact us."

Mara and Zed looked at his screen.

"What do we do?" Mara asked.

"_I_ am going to have to go to the beacon, and meet whoever is there."

Mara and Zed were silent, but Tron saw the warning in their looks.

"I know what you're going to say, but it is a risk I'm willing to take." Tron turned to look away. "Tron is too injured to do this himself. If it is Flynn, I will bring him here. If it isn't, that's a risk and I will have to deal with that. If it happens to be a trap, I will head to this beacon here-" he walked briskly to the table and pointed out the beacon on the edge of the Sea of Simulation. "If I that beacon is activated, it will only be if there is trouble. It will pulse red, and do _not_ come looking for me. By now all of Argon is most likely staring at your identity descriptions on wanted screens."

"So what if you do activate that beacon?" Zed said. "What are we to do?"

"Wait here until I come back."

"And if you're too late for Tron?" Mara asked softly.

Tron was silent. He looked back at Argon. The Gridscrapers peircing the dark space around them.

"Tron has about six cycles left." Tron stated. "If I don't come back at four cycles, you both have authorization, and with Paige's agreement, to do whatever it takes to keep him alive."

Tron saw Mara's skepiticism in her face, "She's agreed to help.

"If I don't come back," Tron looked at them through his mask, "and Tron dies, then you will be the Renegades. You must carry on Tron's name and beliefs. Spread it everywhere; from here in Argon, to Tron city. This will be your responsibility now."


	4. Risks, Part One

_Tron: Sacrifice Script_

Episode Four: Risks, Part One

HEY, BECK." TRON said to him.

Paige stood by awkwardly as Tron talked to Beck. They both knew that Beck couldn't talk back, which made Paige feel even more awkward. She made herself busy, pulling new instruments, trying not to listen to Tron's one-sided farewell.

"I know this is crazy, and no, you cannot convince me not to go." Tron set his head against the cool surface of the metal plating of the tank.

"It should be me."

Paige paused in her work to turn her gaze to Tron.

He turned to her, and pointed at the tank.

"I," Tron pointed at himself, "should be in there. Beck doesn't deserve to be in this situation."

He pushed himself away from the tank, and put his hands on the examination table, leaning on his hands.

"He insisted on staying at the Garage." Tron shook his head. "I should have tried harder to stop him."

Paige bit her lip, trying hard to think of what to say.

"This is my fault he's here." Tron looked back at Beck.

"Have you found a way to slow his derezzalution?"

Paige was relieved he changed the subject. Tron's guilt made her feel ten times as guilty.

"So far, all I can do is increase the plasma pressure, when the sensors I've modified detect the active destabilized points of his disc." She stretched a tablet and slid it across the table to Tron. "When those points lose their integrity, they affect the pixels' structure around them. At the current rate of degeneration, Beck will be fully derezzed in approximately three cycles without the plasma tank."

Tron made a noise of frustration, "That's not enough time."

Paige took the tablet back and suspended it in the space between them.

"I've isolated those weakened, damaged pixels to the point he can come out of the tank, by artificially strengthening his disc structures."

She brought up a model of Beck's disc. Tron saw there were no longer deep red margins on the image, but they were still pink.

Paige touched the weak points and expanded them, showing Tron the technology within the pixels.

"It is my theory," Paige started, "if all these points are neutralized, I can physically put Beck's disc back together."

"Do it."

"There is a catch." Paige took the tablet out of suspension, and decreased its size. "I honestly do not know if it will work. If I'm wrong, he could change. I would have no idea how to reverse that damage, or I could derezz him altogether. I just don't know all the possible risks."

Tron nodded. "Is there a limitation to how long you can wait on this?"

Paige shrugged her shoulders uncertainly, "I need to run more tests. I won't know until then."

Tron nodded. "I'll let Mara and Zed know they are to assist in rebuilding Beck's disc, but they must not be aware he is Beck. They thought he was Tron since the Repurposing Unit crashed."

Paige blinked and slowly nodded, "And you let them still think he's somewhere in hiding. I understand, but they are his friends, and he does need them."

"I know." Tron walked back to the tank. "We already agreed not to tell them of his identity before the Garage. If they know too much, too soon, it may complicate things."

Tron saw Paige nod again in the reflection of tank. He looked at Beck.

"Why is this so hard?" Tron whispered to Beck. "Why, after all this time, can I not handle this?"

Tron briskly turned away and walked past Paige, and into the lift without a word to her.

Paige looked at Beck and put down her tools. She walked over to Beck and studied the program before her, touching the protective barrier just so she could feel the resistance beneath her fingers.

_'What is so special about you,'_ she thought, _'that Tron is willing to switch conditions with you?'_

Tron walked around the Observation deck in silence. They'd finally made accommodations for the Garage refugees, along with temporary clearance signatures. But only Tron had the proper codes to release himself from this sanctuary.

The main computer was set to show him updates on who enters what level, at what time. He had Mara and Zed conduct a test run to work out any glitches in the computer's system. Everyone was traveling up and down the lift while Tron was getting ready, making a racket that he blamed only on himself for bring them here.

_'At least they are working around here.'_

True, they were. Some programs found it necessary to build a Garage inside level five, the level for computer parts, byproducts, and other objects considered mere waste to Tron. The mechanics tinkered with the items they found, and came up with ideas to use them.

They rewrote codes, reprogrammed the deck, and built the work space, now dubbed "Able's Garage" to make themselves more at home.

Tron watched his once lonely, isolated residence transform into a growing, working environment.

"Perhaps, now at last, we can defeat Clu." Tron said aloud, sensing someone behind him.

He turned to find Zed.

"Paige has my full confidence and trust." Tron looked Zed in the eye. "Make sure she is well provided for within her needs."

Zed nodded.

"She's found a possible route to stabilize, and prevent any more damage." Tron looked out at Argon. "If she requests your help, comply."

"Understood."

"Then why are you standing there?"

"Mara doesn't think you should go alone."

Tron smiled, "Mara is right, of course. I shouldn't go alone, but I will. I don't want anyone else to be derezzed for Tron, for me, or for this cause. The time has come to stop hiding, and start a full-forced rebellion.

"Where is Mara?"

"She's working out a nasty glitch with two programs." Zed said with a smile.

Tron looked at Zed, surprised.

"She's got it under control."

"I'm sure she does."

Tron turned to Zed, and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Tell Mara I said goodbye."

"Okay," Zed held out a recoder. "Just in case."

Tron took the recoder, nodding his thanks, and he walked to the lift. Time to go.

Paige had Beck's disc in her hand. She studied it closely, scrutinizing every signal jagged crater absent of pixels. She had her probes and computer monitoring Beck's every minute with out his disc connection.

When she was done she pushed her free hand through the tank barrier, and slid the disc back onto Beck's back. She went back to her studying test results and procedures. She looked at Beck, out of habit at glancing at the tank conduit. She went back to her work.

It was strange to her. Being back in a clinic, after the last time she'd been in one.

She started a new test, simulating a new idea of building a filament around the disc. She watched as it went terribly wrong. She shook her head in frustration. She was running out of creative ideas to save Beck's life.

The only theory she had left was to try to rebuild Beck's disc.

Unless...

She worked out the codes to direct the computer to conduct a new simulation. She watched as the computer spread a filament around the unharmed portion of Beck's disc, separating it from the damaged parts.

She confirmed the computer to start the test sequence, and watched as the computer sped up the predicted cycles of safety to Beck's disc. As the time grew longer, and longer, she smiled. She let the test continue to run, as she went to the lift with the test tablet in hand.

If Tron was still here, she'd ask him to proceed with her test.

She came to the Observation deck to find it empty. Her clacking sound of her heels rebounded off the metal walls and reinforced glass of the observing window, stretching from one end of the deck to the other. She climbed up the staircase to the conference rooms.

"Paige?"

She paused after walking passed a room, doubled back, and peered inside.

Mara and Zed both looked at her.

Paige opened her mouth, but she couldn't make her voice speak.

"What's wrong?" Zed asked nervously.

"Is it Tron?" Mara asked.

"Yes."

At once their expressions changed from those of worry, to ones of utter sadness.

"He's fine, considering his conditions," Paige assured them quickly. "I need to show you something."

She held out the tablet, and Mara stood up instantly to received it.

"Is the Renegade still here?" Paige inquired. "He should hear this, too."

Mara shook her head, saying, "He's just left to the beacon."

Paige nodded, and stood awkwardly as Mara handed the tablet to Zed.

"What you're observing is a test simulating a two-plated filament between the damaged parts of Tron's disc from the working portions." Paige pointed to the time count, which had predicted over ten XilaCycles of unaffected disc functions. "It is the best simulation, the best procedure we've had yet in healing Tron."

"The filament. What is it composed of?" Mara quizzed her.

"The test is set for using the same protective barrier as the plasma tank's for the undamaged part of the disc, and the confining of brig's to hold fast the spreading damage. The filament simulators will be attached to the edges of his disc."

"Those barriers can malfunction." Mara counteracted. "What if it does?"

"The filament will only be used as a partition to protect the unharmed parts of Tron's disc. While it is activated, I want to remove the damaged parts to test and further evaluate a possible regeneration theory. It will be a temporary process, until I can discover how to fully repair his disc."

"That means changing Tron's code." Mara put in. "That is too risky."

"In our discs," Paige continued, "there is a memory file. It saves our code as a back up. If I can unlock that file, Tron will be restored."

"I don't know about this." Mara said.

"While the filament is activated, Tron can still function as before the incident."

"Will he be the same as before?" Mara questioned Paige.

"I do not know. I know so little on disc restoration, but I've been set with this task." Paige shook her head. "I won't know more unless this theory is authorized."

"There are still too many risks. You're holding Tron's life in your hands." Mara crossed her arms defiantly. "You're putting him at risk of deactivation. He is the soul of the revolt. If he is derezzed, we won't have a leader."

"Zed?" Paige looked at the silent programs. "What do you think?"

"I think if the Renegade were here," Zed crossed his arms, "he'd give you the authorization. He'd tell you to do it."

Paige looked from Mara to Zed.

"Mara?" Zed asked her.

"The Renegade would confirm it, only because he is desperate for his mentor's life."

Mara stepped close to her, but Paige remained on her guard, unphased.

"If anything awful happens to Tron on your part," Mara threatened, "I will personally derezz you."

Paige said nothing, and backed away from Mara. She turned her back from them when she was clear from the conference room, now fully understood why Tron didn't tell Mara and Zed. If Mara was this defensive of Tron, how would she react if she knew it was Beck's life in he hands.

Tron deactivated his light cycle, out of fear of being discovered. The silence was unbearably unmoving and thick as an electrical storm.

He activated his dark suit with hardly any light circuitry, and held his disc at the ready as Tron traveled on foot to the sentry guarded entrances. He hid in the shadows until he saw an opening between the guard passing, and slipped through when the distracted themselves with their own conversation.

Tron hoped he'd have as good an opportunity coming back, as he ran lightly through the barrack-like storage containers. Once he cleared them, he headed to to outskirts of Argon where the beacon was.

As he came closer and closer, he realized the city wasn't breathing. It was like everything, except the city, was derezzed, and he was walking through a cold, deactivated place that was just barely holding on to existence. He kept getting the notion to turn back, but he pushed the thought behind him and traveled silently near to the site that would be a trap, or a happy, nerve relieving meeting.

At last he found the beacon, disguised as a programing conduit.

Tron waited for a moment in the darkness as his senses peaked, taking in the environment of the deserted ally. His eyes never staying in one place too long, bounced from the tops of the buildings to the allies around the site. He detected no movement, not a single other program near the conduit, but he still wasn't satisfied. He waited a while longer, still searching with his eyes.

Then he sensed something behind him.

Tron acted at the speed of light catching a program at the neck with his free hand, tackling him down to the ground, putting his disc to the head.

Tron froze at the sight of the program in front of him.

"You were derezzed!" Tron whispered harshly.

"Hello, Tron." Cyrus chuckled softly, his eyes gleaming in the dimmed light of Tron's disc. "Nice way to greet an old friend."

Paige wiped perspiration from her brow, as she focused on sealing the simulators on Beck's disc. She'd run a series of procedure simulations to ensure she knew exactly what she was going to do. There wouldn't be any do-overs if she made a mistake.

With the last simulator firmly attached to the disc, she proceeded to operate.

She activated the filaments, and watched the tablet she placed, to show her exactly how it slithered under and over the disc's portions and separated them. She looked at Beck's systems, satisfied they were functioning under normal parameters for his current state.

She took up a light knife and activated it with a touch of a button. The light slipped easily enough under the damaged half of Beck's disc, and levered the knife downward, pushing the damaged disc portion up. She looked at Beck's systems again. They were running normally.

With the filament simulators confining the damage together, Paige lifted it clear of the working parts of the disc and set it to the side.

Suddenly, Beck's systems went awry, and the computer announced: "Subject distablization."

The screens of her tablets went red, and Paige ran directly to the tank, she cranked the plasma pressure to an all-new high.

"Subject derezzalution." The computer announced and an alarm sounded

"No," Paige shouted, "no! Come on, Beck!"

She went back to the examination table and snatched the disc. She shoved it clear through the tank's barrier and attached it to Beck's back.

All at once, the computer was silent, the alarm silent, the blinking red stopped, and the tank deactivated. Beck was expelled from the tank, and crumpled to the floor.

Paige stood horrified at Beck for a stunned moment, and instantly knelt to the floor to examine him. Before she could touch him, Beck's shoulders heaved, as he weakly pushed himself off the floor into a kneeling position with a soft groan.

Startled by his movement, reflexes took her hand away as his mask deactivated.

"Beck?" Paige squeaked, and worked to control her voice, as her shaking hand touched his shoulder, and she maneuvered around to face him. She cautiously tipped his chin up, so she could see him.

He looked the same as before, but when he looked at her it was like he'd never seen her before.

"Beck?"

He put a hand to rub his forehead, saying, "Where am I? Who are you?"


	5. Risks, Part Two

_Tron: Sacrifice Script_

Episode Five: Risks, Part Two

TRON FROZE AT THE sight of the program in front of him.

"You were derezzed!" Tron whispered harshly.

"Hello, Tron." Cyrus chuckled softly, his eyes gleaming in the dimmed light of Tron's disc. "Nice way to greet an old friend."

Cyrus tried to push him off, but Tron shoved his disc right under Cyrus' neck and singed him with it.

"How are you still activated?"

"How are you not back in that healing tank I built for you?" Cyrus uttered. "Unless, you weren't the one playing with death the other cycle on the jets."

Tron pressed his disc even harder in Cyrus' neck.

"Oh!" Cyrus quietly shouted, reacting to the pain as Tron began to slowly derezz him. "I am right, aren't I? You're favorite Renegade has been derezzed."

Tron raised his disc for the final blow.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't derezz you where you are?"

"Because I know a way to help Becky." Cyrus laughed. "Don't you wonder how I am still in existence?"

Tron froze. He did wonder.

Cyrus' circuit covered face lit up a smile of triumph, as Tron lessened his grip on him.

Cyrus pushed Tron off him, and got to his feet.

Tron kept his disc at the ready.

"Don't try anything."

Cyrus looked at Tron with a sarcastic expression of mock on his face, as he said, "I wouldn't dream of it, now that you appear fully healed. By the way, when did that transpire?"

"Talk." Tron ordered, ignoring the question.

"Oh, come now, Tron." Cyrus mocked him. "You need to ask."

Tron swallowed hard, biting his pride as he formed the question on his lips, "Tell me, how are you not derezzed?"

"You can do better than that." Cyrus replied, crossing his arms in an expectant sort of way, enjoying the situation too much.

"Please." Tron finished stiffly.

"Good enough," Cyrus smiled, and looked at the disc in Tron's hand. "But first, retire your disc."

Tron hesitated, knowing without the protection of his disc, Cyrus would have an advantage on him: Tron was being forced to trust him.

Tron reluctantly reattached his disc to its hold, and mentally prepared his body for ready action if necessary.

"It is really an interesting story." Cyrus began with flourish, pacing a semicircle around Tron. "When the bomb attached to my hand, I couldn't deactivate it and I couldn't release it without the other bombs. You and Beck left me, and I was blasted to oblivion. Until, I woke up surrounded by ISOs."

"You know I'm not going to fall for that." Tron gritted his teeth. "You're wasting time. Tell me how you knew Flynn's code?"

Cyrus held up his hand.

"All in good time, my old friend. But if you interrupt me again, I will not inform you how to rescue your precious renegade, and neither of our questions will be answered."

Tron was silent, though particularly angry.

"Whatever their methods, which I assure you I do not know of," Cyrus held up a finger to prevent Tron from exploding with absurd questions he couldn't answer, "they healed me, and released me on the edge of the Sea of Simulation."

Sensing Cyrus was finished, Tron spoke.

"Clu poisoned the Sea."

"You know as well as I do that the ISOs are innovative." Cyrus continued his pace around Tron. "Perhaps they found a way to surpass the poison without being shutdown, I don't know. All I know is that I was gone, praising the peace I've longed for since you imprisoned me in that mirror, and then I was back."

"Why are you telling me this?" Tron asked turning with Cyrus' pace. "What do you gain from sharing your information?"

"You don't believe me?" Cyrus said, sounding sarcastically hurt. "Of course you wouldn't."

Cyrus reached behind him for his disc, and Tron started for his.

"Relax." Cyrus ordered Tron, as he showed Tron his last memory from the bomb, and then the ISOs waking him from derezzalution.

"Memories can be modified." Tron said after they were done. "You what me to believe you, answer me this: How did you know Flynn's code?"

Cyrus smiled, "Countless times I have observed you, when you weren't strong enough, setting up those conduits so that Flynn would recognize them. All when you thought I wasn't looking."

"How did you know?" Tron repeated, seeing no answer to his question.

"Remember the cycle when I stole your disc half from Beck?"

Tron saw what happened instantly.

"The false disc hacked my computer!"

"I programed the disc to copy all of your computer's Intel and send it to my disc. I got everything." Cyrus beamed, spreading his arms wide. "Everything!"

Tron worked hard to control the impulse to turn Cyrus into a pile of pixels.

"Believed that, didn't you?"

"I'm done here." Tron turned to leave.

"You're forgetting something, Tron," Cyrus called.

"Why haven't you tried to derezz me?" Tron replied over his shoulder.

"You're healed. I can't touch you." Cyrus said. "Anyway, what do you say for my gracious help?"

Tron grimaced.

"Thank you, Cyrus."

Paige started, and turned in a blink as the lift opened on her. She breathed out slowly; relieved when she saw it was Tron.

He noticed her restlessness, and gave her a questioning look.

She turned her head away and looked at the station she was reprogramming. Tron followed her eyes, and a smile spread across his face. He walked up to the translucent window in the wall.

"You did it," Tron looked at her.

"No," Paige said. "I made it worse."

Tron stood there perplexed. His brow furrowed with confusion.

"Beck is out of the tank. You did it, Paige." Tron pointed at Beck. "He's walking around. He's-" Tron looked at Beck again, "-What is he doing?"

Beck was observing his disc, his eyes barely an inch away from his face.

"He's a danger to himself. About a XilaCycle ago, he had some of the reprogramming tools, and-" Paige looked Tron in the eye, "-well, I had to take him out. I decided it was best if he was in isolation for the time being."

"What happened?" Tron asked.

Paige looked at Tron more closely now, surprised. She half-expected a reprimand. Instead, Tron spoke with an unmistakeable understanding.

"I found a way to remove the damaged portion of his disc without shutting down his systems," Paige said watching Tron's face closely for the warning signs of rage, "and I operated. Something went wrong, and all I could do was put his disc in place. The tank deactivated itself, and this is how Beck's been since. He's lost his memory."

Tron looked back at the lost-looking program in the container Paige made.

"That'd explain the curiosity." Tron stated as Beck now focused on trying to push on the walls.

"I don't know how much he's lost." Paige joined Tron. "All I know is his memory file must have been disrupted during the accident."

Tron raised an eyebrow as Beck began hacking at the wall with his disc.

"At least he somewhat remembers how to use his disc." Tron turned to Paige. "Can I talk to him?"

"Probably should." Paige activated the entrance for him.

Tron strode inside without Beck's noticing, and he continued to attempt to derezz his isolation wall to escape.

"That's not going to work, you know." Tron said, leaning up against the wall.

Beck stopped and cautiously backed away into the corner, away from Tron.

Tron held up his hands, "I'm not going to harm you."

Beck said nothing, and stared at Tron, looking like he didn't know what to decide to do with his vistor.

"Beck. It's me, Tron."

"Tron?" Beck said softly, not knowing what to make of this stranger.

Tron felt a deep kink in his circuitry.

"It's okay, Beck," Tron shook his head.

Tron took a slow step toward Beck, and he moved away into the next corner.

"I can help you, Beck."

"How do you know my name?"

"You and I have known each other many cycles now." Tron smiled. "I can show you."

Beck looked at Tron suspiciously.

"I can show you who you are." Tron waited by the door.

"Is she going to lock me back in here afterwards?"

"No," Tron shook his head, "but you can't touch any of her tools."

Beck looked at the floor, and put his hands behind him.

"I was only looking."

Tron smiled, "Come on."

Tron let Beck walk out first, and he gave Paige a funny look.

"Beck," Tron put his hand on his arm and ushered him over to Paige. "This is Paige. You might as well learn to like each other while your both here, or this will be a tough, long time for you.

"Paige," Tron called her attention. "Would you kindly show Beck want not to touch, in concern for his own safety?"

She nodded, and turned.

Tron pushed Beck gently in her direction to follow and learn, and he stumbled a little. He stood and watched as Beck followed Paige around the clinic, as she showed him its components and tools. He acted like he was a defect program, activated without the knowledge of his status. Tron noticed how Beck listened well enough. Beck could be taught, but how could he be there constantly for him while he, Tron, had a revolution to move into action?

"Paige!" Tron waved her to him.

She came with Beck.

"Take this container down," Tron instructed, "and build a computer downloading conduit here. We will download Beck's memories to his disc and see if they will reboot his memory. I will be putting the clinic off limits to give you privacy without unauthorized visits."

Beck looked confused, "There are other programs here?"

"Yes, Beck." Tron said.

"Can I meet them?"

Tron held out his hands, "You will soon enough. Right now, you should regenerate. I'm sure his system still needs to time to energize?"

Paige nodded, and Tron took Beck aside.

"I'm going to have to leave you here with Paige." Tron explained. "She will be your mentor until further notice. Listen to her."

"But when-"

"I'll be back later to evaluate your progression." Tron said. "Eagerness is a good sign, but don't let it drain you.

"Paige," Tron said to her and motioned to talk with her alone.

"Yes?"

"Do not let him know who he is to Argon. I don't want to overload his systems."

"Understood, but how will we achieve his younger memories?"

"I may have to talk with Zed and Mara," Tron sighed, "but not just yet. Let's see if we can do this on our own."

Paige nodded and went back to Beck, as Tron stepped into the lift.

Mara and Zed stood by the screen staring at the spot where the beacon should light up.

"Do you think he made it?" Mara asked Zed nervously.

"The beacon hasn't been activated." Zed answered. "Maybe he's on his way."

"What if he was caught?" Mara said looking at Zed worriedly.

"Nice to know you have so much faith in me."

They whirled around.

"Oh!" Mara put a hand on her mouth. "I didn't mean-"

"I know." Tron walked up to them.

"Who was there?" Zed questioned. "At the beacon?"

Tron looked at them, thinking how best to explain.

"It wasn't Flynn." He briskly turned his head to the window.

Mara glanced at Zed and they shared a confused expression.

"Who was there?" Mara asked looking back to Tron.

Tron sighed expressively, "Do you remember Cyrus?"

"Cyrus?" Zed said looking at Mara. "Oh, yeah! Beck's friend."

"We never heard from him sense though." Mara said.

"That's because he was derezzed." Tron informed them.

"Wait." Mara said. "Are you saying Cyrus was at the beacon? But if he was derezzed, how could he be?"

"I'm trying to make sense of that myself."

Tron went to the computer and brought up the security systems.

"What are you doing?" Mara walked over to Tron's side reading the screen.

"I'm making the Clinic off limits to all programs," Tron said as he programed the lift to accept only his code, which he'd share with Paige. "Only Paige and I are allowed access."

Mara looked at Zed as he opened his mouth to question, but with one look at Mara, he stopped.

Tron noticed their silence, and turned for Mara's ill disguised mischievous looks.

"Paige is working hard on a very risky operation," Tron explained, "and it is very important she is not interrupted."

"Okay." Mara said flatly, and Tron left the room.

"Somethings not right." Mara aid to Zed so suddenly he started. "We need to know what's going on."

"Mara."

"Zed!" Mara exclaimed. "They are keeping secrets! Can't you tell?"

"They have reason to," Zed went to the screen. "Remember some of the information we found? Able's Garage, Mara! Able's Garage was one of Tron's most censored sites on the Grid!"

"And we need to know why!"

Zed shook his head.

"Mara, don't you think this is bigger than us?" Zed picked up a tablet. "We shouldn't get involved."

"We already are involved, Zed!" Mara exclaimed. "Don't you want to know what is going on? Their decisions! Their calling the shots here! Don't you think we have a say?"

"I'm going to listen to the Renegade." Zed looked Mara in the eye.

"You always despised the Renegade." Mara said. "You were ready to turn him in even if he was on of your friends. Why aren't you questioning him now while he's getting cozy with Paige in the clinic?"

"He's not getting cozy with Paige. Why would he?" Zed was about to leave. "I think you need to figure out which programs are the good ones, Mara. The Renegade trusts Paige, so we should too. I'll tell the Renegade you're taking some time off. I'm sure he'll understand."

Mara crossed her arms.

"I don't need time off, Zed!"

"I'm sure he'd agree with me." Zed turned and left Mara alone in the conference room.

She frowned and bit her lip as she thought.

Then, she smiled. She was going to prove to Zed she wasn't being delirious. She was going to show him that the Renegade and Paige were hiding something. She went to the computer and and brought up the security systems and focused the computer's attention on the clinic. As she worked, it blinked red with the word RESTRICTED.

She looked at it and touched the letters.

A new space blinked in front of her. A pass-code login.

She tried to think...What would the Renegade use as a pass-code?


	6. Revelation

_Tron: Sacrifice Script_

Episode Six: Revelation

TRON KICKED HIS foot up as Mara dropped her disk coming back at her, his foot catching her in the side.

"Focus, Mara!" Tron whirled around, sweeping her feet out from under her as he squated and dragged his foot with force. "Pay attention!"

Mara glared at him, suddenly grabbing her disk and throwing it at him from her spot on the holofloor. Tron dashed it easily, and struck Mara with his open hand on her back as she tried to stand up. Mara crashed to the floor again with a grimace, and her disk clanked to the floor as Tron had caught it for her and dropped it.

"Again." Tron said as he walked away to get his position.

She stood to her feet as she picked up her disk. She stared at him with a slight glare.

Mara acted before Tron could give the all go. Her disk collided with his and knocked it out of his hand. She ran at him and jumped up, catching Tron around the middle with her feet. He landed backwards on his back, his breath lost as Mara landed on her feet and twisted.

She kicked out her foot at Tron's mask.

Tron blinked as it shattered and malfunctioned, retracting from his face. He truned away before Mara could see what she'd done, and dashed to grab his disk. Mara Powered herself forward in a run and leapt, landing herself flat on Tron's back and they fell to the floor. Mara held her disk at his back and finally looked closely at Tron's missing helmet.

Mara gasped and dropped her disk and staggered away.

Tron got up, and deactivated his disk. Mara watched him reattatch it to his back, as she stepped back.

"Tron?"

"Mara-" Tron said.

"Tron is supposed to be half derezzed!" Mara said. "If you're Tron, who is in the Clinic with Paige?"

Tron opened his mouth, but he could see Mara's mind working, calculating.

"No!" Mara yelled. "I will not believe it untill I see it."

Tron bowed his head a little.

"Show me it isn't who I think it is." Mara said.

Tron moved towards her, but she backed away.

"Mara-"

"Show me." Mara glared at Tron.

Tron stood defeated, shaking his head.

"You have to understand-"

"Show. Me. It. Wasn't. Him." Mara hissed through clentched teeth, her arms at her side and her hands in fists.

Tron turned and headed to the lift. He dialed the code and allowed the shaft to open. He stepped inside as Mara marched into the lift after him.

The ride down was short but the time felt stretched to them both. Mara was ferious. Tron could see it, and still he thought she'd make a very great fighter...if she still wanted to fight. Mara was shaking her head, her aqua hair bouncing with the movement.

When the lift door opened and Tron stepped out, Mara heard Paige greet him as she took a deep breath and entered the clinic.

Paige looked at Mara in surprise.

"She needs to see him." Tron said in a low voice to Paige and Mara saw her nod.

Paige walked away to a panel in the clinic and typed in her access code. The panel slide open and Mara saw Beck sitting in the secret cache.

"You lock him up!" Mara shouted, her fists clentched.

"Mara!"

Beck ran at her and embraced Mara in a huge hug. He laughed and backed away two steps, still holding Mara's arms.

"Where's Zed?" Beck smiled. "Is he here too? They told me there are other programs here!"

Mara gaped and looked at Tron and Paige. They were looking at each other with the same expression.

"Y-yes. Zed's here!" Mara looked back at Beck, wondering exactly what had happened to him. "How are you?"

"I'm fine!" Beck looked around as if expecting someone. "When is Zed coming?"

"Uh, soon!" Mara hated herself treating Beck this way.

"Where's Bodhi and Able?"

"Umm..." Mara bit her lip. "Beck – I-"

"Beck," Tron saved Mara, "You remeber your work friends?"

"Yes." Beck smiled crookedly.

Tron turned to Paige, "Then that is where we shall start.

"Mara, would you mind Paige using your disc to download some memories for Beck?"

Wordlessly, Mara handed Tron her disc

"You should go find Zed." Tron told Mara. "Paige and I will handle Beck."

Mara frowned skeptically, "Sure."

Beck smiled and waved at her as she walked to the lift, and he complied to Tron and Paige as they prepared to download her memories from her disc. Once she was in the lift, she hit her fist against the cold metal and fumed.

"All along…." She murmurred to herself as the lift opened to Able's Garage. "Link!"

"Um..yeah?" Mara saw the nervous smile on his face, like he was almost always in trouble.

"Where's Zed?"

"He's in the back. Something about a new bike…"

"Thanks."

Mara walked onward, realizing that she hadn't been in Able's Garage in the longest time. Everyone was working and talking, Mara felt a little left out. She walked to the back and Zed instantly saw her.

"Mara!"

He was excited. He ran up to her and took her hand, pulling her to one of the back test rooms.

"Zed!"

"Mara, you have to see this!" Zed pulled her inside and showed her a baton.

Mara looked at it, "A baton. Yes, I see."

"But it's not just any baton!" Zed activated it. "I combine some codes together, and-"

"Zed! That's risky work! With mixed codes it could easily malfunction!"

"Well, I do still need to test it, but look!" Zed gestured at the bike.

"I added this lever here by the acceleration gauges on the handle bar." Zed pointed it out to her. "This contains the light jet I improved. All Tron or the Renegade has to do is push the lever, and the jet transfers the its code to the main computer, and switches activation with the bike. Want do you think?"

"That's really great, Zed," Mara said, "but I have to show you something."

"What?" Zed said.

"Come on." Mara lead the way to the lift with Zed close behind.

The lift closed and she cleared them to shoot to the clinic.

"Mara?"

"You know all those times? When Beck had something else to do? Or he didn't feel like working?"

"Yeah?" Zed took in her sadness. "Mara it's okay. The Renegade will find him. Beck is just probably in hiding."

Mara looked at him. Zed was so serious sometimes, but he still didn't understand.

The lift opened at Zed looked out and froze.

Mara looked down and put one arm around herself before exiting the lift, prompting Zed to follow her.

"Beck?" Zed whispered.

"Mara?"

She stopped and turned around to look at Zed.

"What were you saying?" Zed said looking baffled. "Before?"

Mara bit her lip, "Beck wasn't around because he was the Renegade."

Zed shook his head. "How?"

Zed looked at Beck at the downloading conduit.

"I don't know, but it must have been after Bodhi..." Mara shook her head, feeling helpless a they watched Beck smile when Tron handed him back his disc.

They watched him lift his disc over his head and attach it. Beck closed his eyes, reading the memories in his mind.

"What are they..." Zed started.

"Beck was playing Tron at the Garage all those cycles ago." Mara said. "He was injured, and his disc was badly damaged. He lost his memories."

"What?" Zed looked at her, then back at Beck.

"He doesn't remember Bodhi and Able were gone..."

Zed looked at Beck sadly, and then his attention was drawn to Tron.

"And..." Zed nodded to Tron. "If Beck was the Renegade and he pretended to be Tron, then Tron was filling in for Beck?"

Mara nodded.

"I have so many questions," Mara said after a long silence. "There is so much we don't know about what happened. Like Able..."

"Yeah, Able..." Zed bowed his head. "We have to know."

"We do."

Tron came over to them with a small smile, "Beck responded well to the download. He needs to reboot his systems to make the memories permanent."

He handed Mara her disc, as they watched Paige take Beck to his hidden nook in the wall.

"We need to know everything, Tron." Mara said strongly.

"What really happened?" Zed clarified, "With Able?"

"Cyrus."

* * *

Tron stopped explaining, and looked up at Mara and Zed.

They were stricken.

"I called him a murder." Mara said, bowing her head and glancing at the wall concealing Beck and Paige.

Then her brow furrowed with thought.

"Shouldn't Beck's systems be updated and running by now?"

Tron looked around at the wall. "It's hard to tell, considering how we don't know how Beck will react to the download."

He walked over to the walk and called out the conduit to enter the pass-code, and the wall revealed Paige kneel down by Beck's crumpled form.

"What happened?" Tron asked Paige as Mara and Zed jumped up to help carry Beck off the floor.

"I don't know." Paige said. "He was just functioning normally and then he collapsed."

Beck moaned softly and he opened his eyes.

"Beck?" Mara said slowly.

"Who?"

Paige turned away, crossing her arms and walking out of the room.

Tron watched her, as she gripped the table with a strong grip, then swiftly hitting everything off the counter and letting it smash when it came into contact with the floor.

"Help him," he told Mara and Zed, and he followed Paige.

"There is nothing more I can do!" Paige said, frustrated. "I don't know what else I can do."

Defeated, Paige crossed her arms on the counter and put her head down.

Tron took a deep breath.

"There may be something else we can do." He began, and Paige lifted her head to look at him.

"What?"

"I didn't want this to be an option, considering its source." Tron began roughly. "Cyrus told me how he was reactivated. The ISOs brought him back."

"ISOs?" Paige's face darkened. "They are destructive and dangerous! They-"

"Did Tesler teach you that? They are innocent of these terrible misgivings he manipulated you to believe." Tron said. "They are natural to the Grid. They know things that we cannot possible imagine about the Grid. They helped Cyrus."

"Another reason why we should not go to them!" Paige stood up straight and glared at Tron. "The ISOs destroyed my Medical Unit. I was the sole survivor! I treated their wounds! And they destroyed everything in return!"

"So Tesler couldn't save all those medics from…how many ISOs?"

Paige stopped, and sighed.

"Two." Paige turned away from Tron.

"I knew some ISOs. They weren't deceptive or dangerous, but they could defend themselves if they had to. There is no way in all the possible ways of the Grid that two ISOs could destroy an entire facility."

"You think Tesler did that?" Paige asked.

"I won't put it past him." Tron answered. "The ISOs are not so destructive and violent."

"They attacked me, and I woke up to Occupation soldiers."

"Oh?" Tron said.

"When the alarm was activated." Paige said.

"So they attacked you to defend themselves, and made you unconscious to protect you fro the authorities."

Paige's eyes narrowed at Tron.

"If you want to throw Beck's life away by taking him to runaway ISOs, just know that I will be there to protect him the whole way."

* * *

"Mara, Zed?" Tron peaked around the threshold of the hide out. "I need to ask you something.

"I know this is hard, but I need to ask of you a great deal right now." Tron said stepping inside. "I need to ask you to part from Beck for this instant."

Zed stood up, faltering when he saw the intensity Mara used to glare at Tron.

"Mara!" Zed whispered, as she crossed her arms.

"What you need to ask, Beck is allowed to hear." Mara stated feircely and they glanced at a once again unconcious Beck.

"Zed," Tron said after a stiff silence. "I need you to take charge of the safe house for me."

"You're leaving?"

"Yes." Tron nodded. "Promptly. If I can.

"And with Mara-" she shot him a lasering glare when Ton looked at her "- if you would concent to accompanying me?"

Mara stood up and crossed her arms, her solid stance giving Tron her answer.

"Mara." Zed pleading softly.

She looked at Zed, and, seeing his expression, faltered in her denying will.

"Will this help him?" She said.

"Yes, I have a plan," Tron said.

Mara looked at Zed, then at Tron, and then Beck.

"Okay." Her arms fell to her side.

"If you would come with me?" Tron said at gestured at the exit.

Mara stepped to Beck's side, at looked at his limp form, discovering Beck did all those acts to give all programs a better chance. All of this to start a revolution…for nothing if Beck was derezzed.

Without a word Mara walked out of the room, followed by Tron. Once in the lift Mara stepped up to Tron, real close and threatening.

"No. More. Secrets."

Tron nodded his head.

"No more secrets." He agreed.

The lift opened to the holodeck.

"So." Mara said, angrily. "What's the plan?"

"We're stealing a light sub, but first," Tron paused, "we need to do something about Cyrus."

* * *

"Dyson?" Clu fiddled with his disc as his commander appeared. "I do not see Tron with you. Why is that?"

"Sir, I-"

"You disobeyed my orders, Dyson." Clu looked finally, glaring into Dyson. "Did I not make myself perfectly clear?"

"Your orders were clear, Sir."

Clu slowly stood up, tall and intimidating in the wake of his throne, and stepped down the steps dangerously stiff with livid anger.

"Then what makes you think you can show your face here without Tron? I. Want! HIM!"

Clu threw his disc at Dyson, just missing him by a hair. Clu observed Dyson's reaction was passive; he didn't even blink.

Clu caught his disc coming back.

"Explain yourself, Dyson!" Clu shouted, angry he could make Dyson fear him just this once.

"We received a tip on one of Tron's accomplices."


End file.
